WBI Founders

Our 20 Year Record

From June 1997 until the present, the Namies have led the first and only U.S. organization dedicated to the eradication of workplace bullying that combines help for individuals via our websites & over 12,000 consultations, telephone coaching, conducting & popularizing scientific research, authoring books, producing education DVDs, leading training for professionals-unions-employers, coordinating national legislative advocacy, and providing consulting solutions for organizations.

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Posts Tagged ‘Let’s Talk with Kalola’

I worked for the USPS for over twenty-five years. I never had
problems with coworkers and was considered a good employee. After
suffering personal problems, I noticed a change towards me from my
coworkers. After being told that we were going to move to a larger
facility, I became very excited at the thought of meeting new people.
After we moved to the new location, things got steadily worse. Since
there was very little supervision this went on daily without notice. I
thought that surely these new people had a mind of their own.That
someone would like me. But it appeared that things were being said
about me. Things being said that I didn't know about. It was obvious
that the other people were choosing to believe what they were told. I
am a quiet person who suffers from depression. I was getting worse
by the day.

One day after having about enough, I went to the post master crying.
Not only did he not take my side, the accused saw me crying. Because
of my mental state, it was very difficult to control my emotions.
Through gossip, I was told that they were out to get me fired.

I confessed to my supervisor one day that I drank alcohol before work
to control my feelings. I was let go on the spot and have not been
back since. This was last spring. I will not go back since I
know that nothing has changed.

I was a subject of gossip. I was left out of daily routines. (People
were told not to talk to me) also I had problems with parking that was
very dangerous to myself. I was watched daily and told on to
supervisors.

I can prove everything, because it is all true. My regret is that I
had not used alcohol to handle my problems. But I know in my heart
that I am the victim.

I was working in a trucking and logistics company, as a winery yard
supervisor in California. From my first day on the job, I
heard stories of our former supervisor and dispatcher who had been
demoted to 'truck driver.' Word on the docks was that this guy was #1
workplace abuser who repeatedly threatened my coworkers and forced
people to quit. Not on my watch.

His name was "X" and he quickly became my abuser. He was known to
be very, very disgruntled for having been demoted, and everybody knew
him as a ticking time bomb. But rather than submit to his abuses, I
took them head-on and took an assertive and confident approach to him.
All of my coworkers were afraid of him, walked on eggshells for him,
and submitted to his abusive and angry whims. Not on my watch.

We began clashing from the first day on the job, when I did not listen
to "his" instructions when I was the boss. He began to yell at me,
point his finger in my face, and threaten my job from day 1. I filed
internal complaints, and immediately experienced retaliation by his
buddies in a satellite office of the company.

Over the period of three weeks, I filed internal complaints by writing
and verbally, and this caused the ticking time bomb to explode. One
evening, "X" was acting very paranoid, jittery, agitated. I sensed
something bad was about to happen. He started to instigate our winery
forklift drivers by saying that I was not "doing my job," and I
confronted him by trying to "have a talk with him." He began to scream
at me and use profanity, and I told him straight that he was not going
to come down here and harass or bully me, or my coworkers. This set
him off. The abuser quickly rushed me, got in my face, and punched me in the
jaw. I called 9-1-1. He was arrested and is currently being prosecuted
for workplace violence.

The fallout from this event has been particularly damaging to my
career. We had heard all along that we could not tell our corporate
office of this man's workplace abuses, because we would be 'forced to
quit.' Yet I violated this workplace taboo and did exactly that, and
took it a step further by having the criminal justice system step in
and prosecute the known abuser.

Almost immediately, I have experienced workplace retaliation, demotion
by our supervisors--who just happened to be his buddy--and have been
told to drop the charges a number of times. I got OSHA and the US
Department of Labor involved, and they have enough to charge my
supervisor with a Whistleblower Retaliation charge in violation of
Section 11(c) of the Federal OSH Act. The federal whistleblower
protection program has been my only source of comfort in this whole
mess, and I look forward to watching my abuser fry in a courtroom very soon.

I am presently employed as a Registered Nurse in a large acute care
hospital for two years. I have always had a good evaluation on paper,
yet my co-workers and managers are constantly trying to demean me by
making derogatory remarks regarding my work and private life. One of
my managers stated that a patient complained that I did not treat him
professionally, and then stated that she, the manager had heard this
about me before. When I asked her to be more specific, she could not
present me with any real facts regarding her statement and was just
trying to intimidate me. I have also been touched inappropriately by
staff without my permission after I had explained that I suffered from
PTSD from a previous physical attack in the past and did not like to
be touched. When my manager found out about my condition, she
purposefully made it a point to touch me giving me a knowing look that
this was the reason that she did this. It was intended to be cruel and
abusive. One of my co-workers made sexual gestures to me without
touching me but another one did touch me in my private areas. In this
facility, nothing is kept confidential by the staff whether they are
collegues or management and If you say anything to defend yourself,
you will be under attack and it only makes it worse. I have been
accused of things that were untrue, like substance abuse, which can be
very detrimental to my employment, never mind the fact that I have
been accused of affairs in the work place and out of the workplace,
which is entirely untrue. I go for random drug tests and they have
always been negative. I believe that someone outside my workplace has
made accusations about me, but when I ask if I had a negative
reference, they always say no. The remarks that are made to me are
slanderous and I will take it to another level if I have to. I
honestly don’t know what to do and would like some advice. I would
like to find other employment, but I cannot take less pay, so there is
a lot at stake.

I was bullied by my boss, and when I reported his insidious acts to
Human Resources, he retaliated and placed me on a performance
improvement plan and escalated his bullying towards me. When I
complained to Human resources about the irregularity of the plan, and
the fact that the bullying acts had only accelerated, I was advised to
comply or lose my job.

My performance improvement plan was to last for three months, during
which time my boss isolated me, excluded me from team meetings,
stripped me of critical roles and took every opportunity he could get
to humiliate me and call me names. At some point it was so depressing
to go to work. Going to work was just to face more and more
humiliation and isolation, and I developed body pains especially lower
back and shoulder. The pains would never subside even when I was on
the strongest of pain killers.

One day I felt I could not bear the thought of going to work. I called in sick and even sought medical attention. X-rays were carried out but the doctors could not find anything wrong and only prescribed pain killers. I decided to take time to clear my mind and assess whether I should quit my job. Surprisingly when I returned to work, my boss demanded that I produce my medical records for the day I was sick. Even though I knew that this was a violation of my privacy I handed him copies. Absurdly he accused me of falsifying the medical records and had disciplinary
charges preferred against me. During the hearing he stated that he had
gained access to my call records which to him proved that there was no
way I could have been sick or sought medical help because according to
him I was “roaming the town” based on my call records. Inwardly I
was reeling from the fact that he had illegally obtained my call
records, invaded my privacy, and had the audacity to discredit my
defence and explanation. He demanded that the panel find me guilty. I
got a warning letter and from that day he demanded that I no longer
attend any divisional meeting. exactly one month later he asked Human
resources to have me dismissed for failing to pass the improvement
plan. I was dismissed and advised that I could exercise my right to
appeal. I appealed against the dismissal. The appeal was never heard,
and my dismissal was confirmed a month later.

On the whole the battle against a work place bully is an ugly one.
They are usually in privileged positions of power which they abuse. A
law suit against the company is the only option I have now. I am
actively pursuing that right now.

I began a job a few months ago as a bookkeeper for a medium size
company. There are 8 bookkeepers in the company. There is one
bookkeeper that is terrorizing everyone and the owner of the company
is doing nothing about it. She screams, swears, throws things and
decides what part of her job she is going to do. The best I can figure
is the owner is afraid of her because he hasn’t fired her. Instead he
takes her work and makes other people do it. If you approach her on a
bad day to give her work that belongs to her, she will throw it at you
and tell you she isn’t doing it. Then she will sit there sing real
loud or start laughing like something you would see in a horror film.
She is doing it on purpose. She has told me the owner isn’t going to
fire her so she will do whatever she wants. I have seen her make
another employee cry and I know people have quit because they can’t
deal with her.

My concern is a safety issue, what if one day she really does flip
out? what if someone gets serious hurt. Who is going to be held
responsible? I don’t have patience for bullies and I can’t believe in
the year 2014, we do not have laws to protect us from such treatment.
I really hope pressure can be put on our elective officials to get
things moving.

I really enjoy the work I do but I refuse to allow someone to treat me
like garbage or throw things at me. Not sure what will happen when she
thinks she can treat me like she does everyone else.

My story started when a new manager came to run the store. I had been
working at the store for 12 years. I am a good team leader popular with
everybody, ie., staff and customers. I am helpful and willing to share my
knowledge. I am diligent and industrious and willing to stand up against injustice.

The new manager began nit picking, criticism of trivial nature all the time asking
me to show others my duties then took all my achievement.

I went sick and blamed myself. I was so depressed. I picked myself up and asked for a meeting. Went to the meeting, a new area manager told me straight away I was not up to job.

With all of the prolonged negative stress, I had very bad stress and a breakdown. Sorry out of space.

I am still in a bullying workplace. The person who is bullying is my
supervisor. It started immediately after I started. The supervisor is
related to the boss and that is why she gets away with it. She does it
it front of other coworkers never the boss.

Some examples of bullying; she once said to me “where are you wearing
that short ass skirt to?”.

She once said to me in front of two people, “why aren’t you taking
notes, don’t come to these meeting without a pad”.

She once said to me, ” I would hope you are not acting like a den
bat.”

Just recently she got upset because she has a visitor and because I
notified her and she said to me ” I am tired of this from you” and
slammed the phone in my ear.

These are just some of the examples. They go on and on.

Please help, what are my rights, can I sue? Do I need to start
documenting?

I was a victim of bullying in more than one of my jobs. Always being
scheduled the same times with my bully. The boss bully made sure of it
in both cases. Does it wear you down? Yes. My co-workers would say one
thing to my face and then quite another to my boss. I would try to deal
with it by sometimes becoming quiet during my shifts, while trying not
to cry. My work schedules were very demanding and arduous. By the time I
was near the end of my last job, I was completely
overwhelmed.

Physically,spiritually and emotionally, I was a
wreck. Crying at the drop of a hat and no one was supporting me. I knew
that if I took management on, it would turn uglier for me. I found out
much later, if I had gone to the labour board, it would have to be in
a certain time period. I knew the boss had kept a special file for me
and had plenty of facts to make, him/her alone, look good. I am a year and
a bit until my retirement. I would love to have a new employ, but will
absolutely not allow myself to be bullied again. I’ll walk away
first. Self preservation.

If you have some assistance in getting help in your situation, do it
and make sure you have positive support. I just didn’t know where to
turn. There’s nothing good in feeling like you are trapped in a
circumstance which is not healthy.

I pray and wish the best for all of you. Persist and press on and
remember, you are not alone.

My story began 3 years ago when we got a new assistant principal. The first incident that happened involved myself and my aide at the time. I was told by the principal I was moving grade levels but not to discuss it with anyone. So I honored the principal’s request. The assistant principal (AP) told her/his spouse about the change and the spouse told my aide who was shocked that nothing was said to him/her. My AP called me into the office and yelled at me for telling people. I pointed out that I did not and directed the AP to her/his spouse. The spouse admitted leaking the “secret”. Although small it really bothered me that AP heard gossip and based on that attacked me. The next events centered around MAP testing. He/She did not want us to use scrap paper. We fought and pleaded. We contacted our assessment coordinator who finally allowed us to use scrap paper. The same year my 2nd grade team scored extremely well on the paper test with the majority in the distinguished range. We were told that next year we would be given a harder test. So we teach 2nd grade but now we are given the immediate map test. Of course scores significantly dropped and we were told we were the issue.

Our AP attacked us in a PLC meeting by yelling, throwing paper, and threatening us. We have went to our principal and superintendent several times and each time they state they are working on a solution. Our AP spreads mean gossip about myself and my team. The AP also has the resource teacher spying on us to create false accusations. They both turned us in to OEA Office of Educational Accountability) for cheating on a test with our building principal being the proctor. The case was unfounded because it was a total lie. The AP held our faculty
Christmas party at her/his house and we were not invited. We were told not to have any contact with him/her so we go through our building principal who is just trying to sneak on out and retire in less than a year.

I was in health care, The interview went great, but the question I was
asked which threw me for a loop was “How do you handle aggressive
coworkers?” I had never been asked that before and so I answered as
such. I did notice when I shook hands at the end one interviewer has a
confident shake and the other had a limp shake as though she was very
passive, I didn’t think much of this, just thought it was weird. And
my gut turned it was saying “I don’t really want to work here
something is off” I got a call and was hired, and since I had not
heard back from another place I had wanted I accepted – though if I
had waited I would have received the phone call of acceptance 2 days
after starting at this place.

Turns out the people who interviewed me were not going to be my boss.
Another weird thing I had never encountered before was my new boss
asked me to remove my degree from my wall frame and bring it in so he
could verify that I had indeed graduated from an approved college. I
said of course I had, that is why I have a license to practice. He
said he is in charge and that is what policy states. So I asked my
parents to FedEx my diploma from another province and dismantled my
diploma and brought it in. It was returned to me with a coffee ring on
it. I thought that was rude and said so. He smiled at me and said in a
mocking tone “I don’t really care.”

Later on there was a discussion where medical professionals were
bashing aboriginals and I spoke up after my boss said “Thank god we
don’t hire them.” I found this extremely judgmental and I spoke up
and said “Wow, I must have slipped by your radar” and I looked at the
other medical professional and said “I am one.” My boss shrank a
little bit. That is when it all went down hill. He would stand over me
and try and intimidate me with his body language. He assigned me to
clean the chairs (I’m a medical professional…), he assigned me to
order gifts for a pharmacy rep he liked, he assigned me to janitorial
duties. I kept jumping through his hoops. One day in the hallway he
sneered at me “You think you are so good, well just remember this, I
can have you replaced like this *snaps fingers in a gun finger pointed
fashion at me*” I said I understand that, I tried to be humorous with
him and I said “You remind me of the boss of office space”. There was
a scholarship for a program I was in and another worker and he leaned
in near me and said the coworkers name and he kept glancing at me as
though wanting me to ask him questions but I didn’t then he said “Well
too bad you won’t be able to apply, because you need MY approval” I
said “Don’t worry, I know how to work hard to get my education”. Later
he said “You have been reported using your cell phone today on the
floor.” I said “How is that possible? I leave my cell in the car, go
look right now.” He didn’t like that I caught him in a lie. Then he
said “Also your documentation is a mess, I have it all here.” I said
“How can it be?” He looked at me with a smile and took out a red pen
and scratched through all my charting, I was shocked that someone so
childish like this was my boss. He told me he couldn’t have me working
anymore, and at this point I said “Listen – clearly you don’t like me,
you know as well as I know that I haven’t done anything wrong, if you
are looking for reasons to fire me, just tell me to quit, don’t resort
to bullying.” His eyes looked like he wanted to kill me. Right there I
saw the look that he wanted to kill me. After this I brought my cell
and put it on record every time I was interacting with him and was
able to document a lot of the abuse.

The last shift I worked, after having handed in my tools for the job
as requested by my boss… I was injured, bleeding and tissue damage.
He never filled out a worker injury and compensation form for me. I
called HR and was told they are well aware of his abuse but
unfortunately cannot do anything, I asked why, and they said they
can’t explain. I came back in from break (calling a few people like a
lawyer, a police officer, workplace harassment team, ceo of the
organization, HR, past employer, a health professions licensing board)
and coming up with solutions as I knew I didn’t think I could handle
anymore verbal or psychological abuse as well as preventable injuries
on the job without saying good bye to my sanity) and decided to give
notice of resignation upon further verbal abuse, which I recorded…
and was witnessed by coworkers).

I quit when he proceeded to berate me in front of a coworker on the
spot I said “I am going home sick, I’m not feeling well” he said “Oh,
do you think you will feel well tomorrow?” I said “Sick enough to hand
in my resignation letter at noon”, he told me I couldn’t do that, he
owns me for 8 hours a day, I said “No one owns me if they can’t treat
me like a human being” Then I listed the employment law act for the
province that stated my rights to resign and told him to look it up,
then I said next look up criminal harassment. He got the hint and told
everyone to go back to work. I said thank you to my team for the
privilege of working with honest human beings and said if they ever
need help or a witness they know how to contact me. I was able to get
written affidavits of the abuse I endured and have them ready with a
retained lawyer if in the event he should ever harass me in the
future. I have wrote a few for other employees. Never in my life have
I experienced that level of abuse with any other human being in my
life.

For a year I had nightmares and panic attacks again, all new for me
and sought therapy. My allies (co-workers), they too were on the
receiving end of some serious petty “one-against-the-other” mind
messing but we made a pact and realized he was trying to keep everyone
confused and fearful in order to have quick obedience. I think the
scarier thing was they had an organization in to address the workplace
bullying within the first month I was there, and yet nothing changed,
further these were people who people went to get therapy from. The
boss hoodwinked the bullying organization.